Minimally invasive surgical techniques are often preferred over traditional open surgeries because the recovery time, pain, and surgery-related complications are typically less with minimally invasive techniques. Many types of procedures can be performed using minimally invasive techniques, with various end effectors or tools being disposed at a distal end of the device to perform particular tasks. For example, an end effector can be jaws for grasping tissue, or an end effector can be a suturing head for applying suture to tissue. During the course of operating these end effectors, various fluids (e.g., blood) and tissue fragments can impede the field of view of the operator, for instance by blocking or blurring an endoscope or laparoscope disposed at the surgical site, and/or impede the progress of the end effector being used. When using a suturing head, for example, as a needle is passed back-and-forth between jaws, the fluid and tissue fragments that may exist at the surgical site can make it difficult to see the needle to know which jaw it is in and to know the general progress of the stitching procedure. Fragments and fluid may also impede the reception of the needle by either or both of the jaws. Some of the fluid and tissue may be more easily cleaned by applying a vacuum force to the area in need of cleaning, while other fluid and tissue may be more easily cleaned by applying an irrigation force.
Further, some existing devices are also not well equipped to be reused, whether with the same or different end effectors. Thus, a new device may be used for each new patient and/or with the same patient when two or more end effectors are needed during the course of a single surgical procedure. This helps protect the patient by providing a new, sterile device, but leads to increases in cost and waste. Additionally, for some existing devices, the devices are not well-equipped to interchangeably use different types of end effectors. Thus, it may be difficult to use an end effector such as jaws for grasping tissue with the same base device as an end effector that uses a suturing head to stitch tissue.
Accordingly, there is a need for minimally invasive devices and methods that allow a surgical device to be reused and can be used with multiple types of end effectors. There is also a need for a surgical device capable of being cleaned using multiple cleaning methods, e.g., interchangeably applying vacuum and irrigation forces as desired.